Tip for fading plastic door handles.

[Husker Du]

The door handles in my 1987 T4R have been a hazy light grayish white for many years. I tried many things to turn them back to the original dark gray again but nothing worked. I tried scrubbing, waxes, cleaners, Armor All, and a few others but nothing worked.
A few weeks ago I was working on the window inside the passenger side door and as I was putting it all back together I noticed the little pin hinges on the door handles and thought I would put a drop of oil on them. Well with only one drop of the oil on the pin, the oil started spreading over the plastic. I grabbed a rag and started wiping it off. Then I noticed that the plastic was back to the original dark color again. Afraid it might have a negative long term effect I didn

 

[myyota]

I replaced my fading inner door handles with chrome ones, and it looks good, and the nice thing about the chrome is that they won`t fade.

 

[gotmud?13]

like they say, chrome wont get you home!! but good find!! i will do that as soon as i can pick up come machine oil. my grandpa in law told me how he used to buy an old car, shine it with brasso, and sell it for triple the price. i havent tried it on fading paint, but apparently it works like a charm. if you are waxing your car (most likely not your 4runner) and you get it on black plastic, and it leaves a white residue that wont come off, my dad taught me to use peanut butter. the oils will dissolve the white stuff that nothing else can